In response to political protests and violence following the elections in Kenya, Kenya’s Business Process Outsourcing and Contact Centre Association held an emergency meeting last Thurday.
The meeting discussed how the industry could lessen the blow inflicted by the country’s recent turmoil on its outsourcing industry’s growth and success. Kenya’s development as an outsourcing destination has largely occurred during the last year, particularly through providing offshore call centre solutions.
Nick Nesbit, chief executive of Kenya’s first international call centre, KenCall, attended the meeting and said “the focus was on what the local call centre needs to do to reassure potential clients back to the state they were in before Christmas”.
Datamonitor analyst, Peter Ryan, called Kenya “the fastest developing outsourcing destination” because of its near shore status, the large English speaking population and its low cost proposition, but said the instability and violence could now put off global outsourcing players considering business there.
Ian Marriott, Gartner analyst, said “people will step back and balance risk against investment,” adding that “the likelihood is outsourcing providers will start to move to other countries and look elsewhere.”
Marriott explained the importance of firms investing in a global delivery model, which allows organisations to switch areas in the event of attacks or disasters. “It [the events in Kenya] teaches people not to have all their eggs in one basket when choosing unstable places,” Marriott added. Marriott also said organisations need to consider the trade off between less cost benefit for a more stable place.
But Nesbit argued until now, the stability of Kenya had been one its biggest attractions to investors.
In a meeting with Google directors last December, the Kenya ICT board, which was set up as a state corporation last February in order to make Kenya “a top ten global ICT hub”, said the three factors that make Kenya an appealing offshore destination were the “large number of highly educated and skilled professionals, the stable economic and political environment for business and a very proactive ICT sector.”
At the end of last year, there had been news of the Kenyan government injecting millions of dollars into a telecom system for the country and agreements for new satellite links connecting the East African region with the world’s internet.
Nesbit said the biggest barrier to Kenya’s outsourcing industry had always been the “perception issue”. “People are always gobsmacked because of how Kenya compares to other African states, but the problem is that if there is no way of talking to investors, there is no way to avoid people’s pre-judgement,” Nesbit said.
The task of tackling the perception issue is now even more of a reality, Nesbit explained.
Although at the start of the troubles triggered by the Kenyan elections staff had difficulty getting to the office and attendance had decreased by 60 per cent, now “everything is working as it was before,” Nesbit said. “There are tribal issues being played out but these do not affect the workforce.” Nesbit said, adding that he had noticed no political divide among his staff.
Nesbit explained that it will make little difference to his business which party gains power because both are “pro outsourcing, pro security and pro international funding.”
Tony Roberts, Computer Aid International director of development, said the running of his organisation’s projects delivering computers across Kenya had returned back to normal last Monday.
“The image problem is greater than the practical projects on the ground,” Roberts said. “The instability is likely to have done serious damage to Kenya abroad, even though the staff back in Nairobi are back to work as normal,” he added.
Nesbit said the outcome of the emergency meeting held was an agreement to reassure the local, international and trade press that Kenya’s political environment would not affect its outsourcing industry.
Ryan warned investors, “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
“Think of the advantages and weigh this up against the disadvantages. If you don’t feel the country meets your requirements then don’t do it, but be vigilant,” Ryan said.
